CHARLESTON, West Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — The West Virginia House Education Committee passed the “Parent and Student Health Rights Act” last week to prevent schools from forcing students and employees to wear masks, or to quarantine or test for COVID when asymptomatic.
HB 4071 states, “regardless of a confirmed outbreak, no school … may impose a COVID-19 mask or face covering requirement for any school student, grade K-12, or school employee,” since the “parent of a student maintains the right to determine whether their child will wear a mask … on school premises.”
It further states that no school or official “may impose a mandatory COVID-19 testing requirement on any asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic student and/or school employee,” nor may they require quarantine or isolation of students and employees “unless a case of COVID-19 is confirmed by a positive test result.”
The bill restricts the duration of quarantine for students and employees to five days, or to when a negative COVID test result is received.
According to West Virginia’s MetroNews, the lead sponsor of the bill, Delegate Jordan Maynor, R-Raleigh, suggested that its provisions are the result of “overwhelm[ing]” feedback from his district’s constituents.
“I think it’s time to empower parents, empower individuals to start making these decisions,” Maynor said.
The bill has already received pushback in the House Committee, with one member even comparing students to “Typhoid Mary,” a famous asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, which had a high fatality rate when untreated.
“I have some concerns about my child going to school, and Typhoid Mary being around the school and disseminating the COVID,” said Delegate Cody Thompson, D-Randolph, a public school teacher.
When questioned about the bill, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said he is “not for mandating masks in school,” but believes the decision “should be left up to local school districts,” MetroNews reported.
The neighboring state of Virginia enacted a similar measure when Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order declaring that parents have the sole right to decide whether their children wear masks in public schools.
Florida has gone even farther by stripping eight school districts of state funding after they violated Governor Ron DeSantis’ executive order banning Florida schools from reimposing mask mandates for schoolchildren last fall. These school districts eventually complied with the order after unsuccessfully challenging it in court.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a statement advocating for all children age two and up to wear masks in schools despite evidence that children do not significantly spread COVID-19 and research which suggests face masks may pose a risk to children’s health.
Research published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) found that face masks cause children to inhale dangerous levels of carbon dioxide, more than six times the legal safe limit for closed rooms as set down by the German Federal Environmental Office.
The effect was worse for younger children, with one seven year-old child inhaling air with 2.5% carbon dioxide, over 12 times the safe limit.
The Parent and Student Health Rights Act now goes to West Virginia’s House Judiciary Committee.